Unknown to most people, the recent death in an accident of Access Holdings Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Herbert Wigwe, was not the first time such a tragedy was to hit the revered Wigwe family of Isiokpo, Rivers State.

Some 26 years ago, the family had its first experience with such tragedy when their first child, Osita, died in a road accident on June 5, 1997, while travelling from Lagos to Port Harcourt.

A source who spoke with News Express said: “Osita, who had successfully driven from Lagos, ran under a truck close to home and died in that accident alongside the lady that accompanied him on that journey.”

Recalling what happened on that sad day, their father, former Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Director-General, Shyngle Wigwe, 89 and a former volunteer pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), said he was attending a ministers’ conference on June 5, 1997, when he received the sad news of the death of Osita, who was 34 years old.

“I never sweated like that in my life before and I didn’t think it was going to happen to me. For weeks, I couldn’t go up to the altar. I went, then I wept, and I came down. It was like somebody took a pair of forceps to draw out your heart from you,” he said.

“That boy was one in a million. He had the attributes of a daughter; he had the attributes of a son. He was a solution provider to all family problems. If I had him, I thought I had everything. For quite some time, I didn’t feel life was worth living anymore. We spoke as brothers, not as father and son.”

Unfortunately, the Wigwe family was recently struck by another tragedy – specifically on Friday, February 9, 2024, when his wave-making son, Herbert, along with his wife and son, died in a helicopter crash in the US.

The ghastly accident has elicited widespread sorrow, with Isiokpo Community declaring seven days mourning and several dignitaries visiting Pa Wigwe and his wife to condole them.

The helicopter crash is being investigated by US authorities.

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